Isaiah 41

Set forth your cause, says the LORD. Bring out your strong reasons! “Says the King of Jacob.” Wesley’s note is little more than the summons itself: produce your cause. The King of Jacob calls the idols into court; they must bring proofs, not slogans.

God is advocate and King. Arminian readers find a court: the images may speak, and they will lose.

Plead your cause. Calvin: God as advocate for the nation against mockery. King of Jacob: God will be successful if impartial judges tried the cause. He does not actually submit to men or angels as judges.

Reformed: the plea is demonstration, not a surrender of the throne. Shared with Wesley: the LORD summons; proofs must be brought. God declares former things; idols cannot.

Let them announce and declare to us what will happen! Declare the former things, so that we may consider them and know how they turned out; or show us the things to come. Wesley: them—the idols. Former things—such things as should shortly come to pass. The latter end—whether the events answer to their predictions.

God declares the future; idols cannot. Arminians still confess the God who foretells; they do not smuggle a deity who learns the future from events.

Let them bring the gods; let them tell us what is to come. Calvin: true religion is distinguished by a rule that cannot deceive. Almighty power and foreknowledge of all things are peculiar to the Godhead; whoever knows all and can do all is God. Idols know nothing past or future, can do nothing in prosperity or adversity, therefore are not gods. Heathen oracles were obscure and doubtful (Pyrrhus, Croesus); Satan was permitted to deceive. God revealed to the elect people what is profitable.

Reformed: foreknowledge is not a luxury of the Godhead; it is how you tell God from an image. No fork: both camps refuse a god who waits on events to find out.

Declare the things that are to come hereafter, so that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and terrified. Wesley: do good—protect your worshippers whom I intend to destroy, and destroy my people whom I intend to save. That I and my people may be astonished, and forced to acknowledge your godhead.

Common to both: the test of deity is to declare and to act. Wesley’s God already intends to destroy and to save; the idols cannot reverse it. God rules; the images cannot.

Do good or do evil. Calvin: not commit injustice; it means inflict punishment and send adversity, which belongs to providence (Amos 3:6; Lamentations 3:38)—wars, pestilence, famine. Tell us hereafter, that we may know you are gods.

Reformed: good and harm are providence, not a dare to commit injustice. Shared with Wesley: if they cannot tell or act, they are not gods. The point holds: omnipotence and foreknowledge belong to the LORD.

You are nothing, and your work is nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination. Wesley: your work—your operations are like your beings: no reality in your beings, nor efficacy in your actions.

Both readings: idols are nothing. He who chooses them chooses abomination; God rules, and the workshop cannot.

Ye are of nothing. Calvin: quality, not material—gold or stone does not make a god. Paul: an idol is nothing (1 Corinthians 8:4). He hath chosen abomination: men cannot frame idols without framing abomination. Worship that is the result of choice is at variance with true godliness.

Reformed: nothingness is the idol’s nature, not its metal. Common ground with Wesley: no reality, no efficacy. No fork: both camps empty the image.

I have raised up one from the north, and he has come, from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name; he will trample rulers like mortar, as the potter treads clay. Wesley: raised—Cyrus, might be said to come from the north, because he was a Mede by his mother, as he was a Persian by his father; or because a great part of his army was gathered out of Media, which was northward in reference to Judea, and because Darius the Mede was joined with him. Proclaim—this Cyrus did in express, emphatical terms, Ezra 1:1,2. As on mortar—treading them down as easily as a man treads down mortar.

God stirred him; potter treads clay. Omnipotence here is why the idols’ silence in v. 26 matters.

I have raised him from the north. Calvin: some explain Cyrus, others Christ; but he takes two things—from the north the Babylonians, from the east the Medes and Persians. Two changes: God raises the Babylonian empire, then Persians become their masters. Captivity and deliverance are His work. Kings are clay. He shall call on my name: Cyrus’s intention was not to serve Israel’s God, but God led him in secret; the event showed it (Ezra). Potter treads clay: Babylon’s power no obstacle.

Reformed: two empires, both stirred by God. Shared with Wesley: the LORD raised them; clay cannot resist the potter.

Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know? “And before, that we may say, “He is right”?” There is no one who declares. Surely, there is no one who shows. Surely, there is no one who hears your words. Wesley: who—which of your idols could foretel such things from the beginning of the world unto this day? Before-time—before the things come to pass. Righteous—his cause is good: he is a God indeed. Heareth—because you are dumb and cannot speak.

God declares beforehand; idols are dumb. Wesley’s God foretold from the beginning; the images never spoke.

Who hath declared from the beginning? Calvin: God claims this for himself; idols leave worshippers in suspense. We will say he is righteous—approved.

Reformed: the rightness of God is known because He spoke first. Wesley agrees: none declared, none proclaimed, none heard the idols. No fork: both camps put foreknowledge on the LORD, not on events teaching Him.

I am the first to say to Zion, “Behold, look at them!” and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem a herald of good news. Wesley: the first—I who am the first, do and will foretel to my people things to come. Them—I also represent future things as if they were present. One—messengers who shall foretel the good tidings of their deliverance from captivity.

Zion hears good news of deliverance from captivity. God is first to speak; the herald does not invent the news.

The first to Zion. Calvin: comfort to desolate Zion. Messenger (mebashsher): Jerome “Evangelist”; prophets who bring the cheering message of deliverance. Commendation of preaching. Behold they come.

Reformed: preaching is God’s gift to Jerusalem. Wesley reads it the same way: messengers, good tidings of deliverance. They agree enough: prophets and heralds of the return, not a fork between camps.

But when I look, there is no man, even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask, can answer. Wesley: I looked to see if I could find any man that could foretel future events. No man—not any of the idols (man sometimes used of lifeless things). No counsellor—idols often consulted, none able to give solid certain advice concerning future things.

Agreed on both sides: no counselor among the images. God asks; they cannot answer.

I looked and there was none. Calvin: no counselor among the idols. Comparison: God speaks by prophets and works; idols cannot.

Reformed: the silence of the workshop versus the God who speaks. Wesley agrees: none answers. Idol nothingness, not an Arminian/Reformed split.

Behold, all of them are nothing; their works are worthless; their molten images are wind and confusion. Wesley: conclusion of the dispute; under these he comprehends all images. Wind—empty and unsatisfying. Confusion—confused and useless, like the rude heap at the beginning of creation; this very word in Gen 1:2.

Their images are empty wind and chaos. God declared; the images are chaos.

All vanity. Calvin: worshippers like the idols (Psalm 115:8). Works a failure. Wind and chaos (tohu, Genesis 1:2). Images quench true knowledge.

Reformed: the images empty their makers too. Wesley agrees: wind, tohu, the rude heap of Gen 1:2. Conclusion of the dispute: the LORD spoke; they did not.